Today’s Twilight Zone update comes from Canada, where a Beatles-mad dentist is attempting to clone John Lennon using DNA from one of the pop icon’s teeth.
Michael Zuk, who bought Lennon’s rotten molar at an auction two years ago, says scientists at a US lab are now attempting to extract its DNA in order to produce stem cells that could then be grown into a replacement Beatle.
“With researchers working on ways to clone mammoths, the same technology certainly could make human cloning a reality,” said Zuk, in a refreshingly ethics-free evaluation of the project.
Zuk paid £19,500 for the tooth in 2011, acquiring it from Lennon’s housekeeper, Dot Jarlett, who originally acquired it in the mid-60s. The auction house claimed at the time that the tooth was “too fragile” for DNA testing, which poses the bonkers possibility that the cloned individual could turn out to be someone completely different, and perhaps still living. [via The Guardian]
